FOUNDER- HOT BREADS - RESTAURENT OWNER

REINVENTING FINE DINING WORLD OVER

Sixty-year-old ‘Hot Breads Mahadevan’ did not start off in a hotel or a restaurant but as an Assistant Professor in the University of Madras in 1979 teaching Marketing Management and Accountancy to students. It was passion for meeting people that took Mr. Mahadevan from the lecture halls of the university to the humble bakery and later to start restaurants all over the globe.

Born on April 7, 1955, Mr. Mahadevan grew up in Udumalpet, 65 kilometers from Coimbatore in Tamil- Nadu, India, Mr. Mahadevan’s parents late Dr. Narayana Menon and late Mrs. Devaki originally hailed from Kollengode, Palakkad, Kerala. Mr. Mahadevan did his graduation and postgraduation in PSG College, Coimbatore. Though, his dad was a doctor, Mr. Mahadevan took interest in business and did his post-graduation in commerce. It was Arthur Hailey’s ‘Hotel’ that inspired him to get into the hospitality business.

Mr. Mahadevan’s first employment was as a night manager in Sea Lord Hotel in Kochi, Kerala. After his stint with Sea Lord, he joined University of Madras as a lecturer. It was while teaching at University of Madras that Mr. Mahadevan had the urge to venture into the hospitality industry. So, during the late hours, to satisfy his fierce ambition to be a part of the hotel industry he took up a part-time night job with a hotel where he started working for four hours at night to learn more about the industry. At the hotel he juggled many roles – he was a trainee, a bell boy, a receptionist, he tried his hand at everything. So, while he was a professor during daytime, he also moon- lighted as an apprentice with a hotel in the evening.

While teaching, Mr. Mahadevan took a calculated risk and started a Chinese take-away, China Garden, in 1983. He started the kitchen, along with a partner, with

Rs.60,000, and it opened at 5 p.m. and closed at 11.30 p.m. It was the time when Chinese food was a rage among the people. He soon left his teaching job and moved to the food and beverages sector full time. One day, one of his customers who was building a commercial tower asked him if he would be interested in taking up a place there. That was how his first restaurant, Cascade, opened. Cas- cade served Chinese, Thai, Malay and Japanese cuisine.

From then on Mr. Mahadevan’s business has multiplied manifold. In the next three years he launched the Hot Breads venture. The idea came to Mr. Mahadevan during one of his trips to Singapore for sourcing ingredients for his restaurant. The bakeries in the city state caught his fancy and he decided to start one in India. In 1989, he launched Hot Breads with Rs.11 lakh. He started selling his ‘by now famous’ curry buns, pastries, pizzas and burgers.

At Hot Breads, Mr. Mahadevan and his team experimented with some exciting concepts. They filled a bun with curry and made it a curry bun. They filled chicken tikka inside a croissant. Soon their customers started crowding outside their unit at Alsa Mall in Chennai. The curry buns are a big hit even in faraway Paris. The joint broke even in the first year itself and never looked back. In the third month itself, people from Kochi and Bangalore came calling to start Hot Breads units there. Soon, he came to be known as ‘Hot Breads Mahadevan’!

Once, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked Mr. Mahadevan why he wanted to be an entrepreneur. He told him that while politicians give fish to people, entrepreneurs teach people how to fish. He told him that in a country like India, the biggest thing entrepreneurs can do for the nation is to create job opportunities, and that’s what keeps him ticking.

It was in 1994 that Mr. Mahadevan opened his first international outlet in Dubai. That became his staging post for further forays globally. His latest venture is a south Indian restaurant in Melbourne-Australia. Mr. Mahadevan has a total of 80+ outlets across the world and 100+ in India under Advantage Foods Pvt Ltd and B&M Hot Breads Pvt Ltd.

 

During the days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Mahadevan delved into personal savings as well as disposal of personal assets such as his car to fund salary payments and so on. Although business was affected, Mr. Mahadevan was hurt that jobs were lost and he had to let go some of his employees.

Mr. Mahadevan has forged many partnerships across the world to run his business. He works with 200+ partners across 16 countries that he is connected with across the globe.

Mr. Mahadevan is travelling 200 days in a year to hunt suitable partners and boost and manage his business- es abroad. He loves meeting people and many of his partnerships have stemmed from it. It gives Mr. Mahadevan a rush of excitement and a purposeful surge creating new business and ventures. For him, partnering with new entities and partnering with other estab- lished restaurant chains — such as SaravanaBhavan and Anjappar — in opening more branches outside India gives him a rush as expanding business means more jobs and livelihoods he can create for people.

Advantage Foods Pvt Ltd has many restaurants and outlets under its umbrella, which include, Marina, Benjarong,  Writers Café, Ente Keralam, China Town and Teppan, to name a few.

Often Mr. Mahadevan chooses to compete with his own brand. He launched French Loaf, anoth- er bakery chain, even though Hot Breads remained a strong player. He wanted to upgrade products and with better ingredients like Belgium chocolates as raw materials. No longer in the stables of Mr Mahadevan, French Loaf was launched with higher prices. Also, the market was improving and there was a place for some more brands—before some- one starts, Hot Breads decided to compete with itself.

Mr. Mahadevan’s ventures have a commercial side but there is also a charity side to them. To give some- thing to the society you need money. And to have that money you need to make money. His baking operations form the core of his charity work. His bakery projects teach the poor how to bake so that they can earn a living. Hot Breads also trained a lot of women in baking skills so that they can be gainfully employed.

His latest offering, Writer’s Café in Chennai, is an out- come of this ability to rethink and remodel on the spur, almost as a reaction. The cafe, close to the iconic Sathyam cinemas, also houses a branch of Chennai’s oldest bookstore, Higginbothams. The walls are lined with books, for browsing and buying, while the tables overflow with youngsters animatedly talking or doing projects on their laptops. Students are allowed to linger here forever. They enjoy the fresh and friendly ambience.

Writer’s Cafe also marks an important milestone in Mr. Mahadevan’s social outreach. It employs 21 women, all victims of acid attacks and fire accidents. They are trained in baking and making ice-cream at a specially constructed training centre free of cost with a stipend, and then employed in Writer’s Cafe. Even his share of profits from Higginbothams gets channelled towards their hostel fees and their children’s education and healthcare.

Ten years back, Mahadevan had teamed up with the Chennai Corporation to train school dropouts in baking and started the ‘Winners’ bakery chain in Corporation outlets. The kids get employment as well as skilled training. They are free to move to any other restaurant or pizza outlets. The same applies to the women staff

in Writer’s Cafe. If some hotel wants to utilise their skills and offer better pay, they are free to take it up.

The serial entrepreneur is proud of the fact that he was able to provide employment for over 4,000 young Indians and open various outlets in 16 countries. Mr. Mahadevan’s success mantra is ‘Do things you know or join with people who know the things. Studying market needs and pricing policies are important before entering any market.

 

 

Mr. Mahadevan is married to Badurunnisa the couple have two children. Their daughter, Sumaya Mahadevan, is a graduate in arts and design from Singapore and is a designer with Apple in Sydney. Their son, Tarun, is a graduate from University of Bath, United Kingdom and looks after  the business in Chennai. Mr. Mahadevan loves travelling, meeting people, and reading.

 

Address in UAE:
Ascon House, Chamber 810, Street No. 30, Community 123,
Al Muteena Street, Deira; Hot Bread Investment LLC

Address in India:
No. 6/13, North Avenue, Kesavaperumalpuram, RA Puram, Chennai